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It's a knockout!

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The weekend had started so promisingly - the father in law had come up for the weekend to take care of all of the jobs my current limping state could not complete (and the wife would argue wouldn't get done even absent the crutches). However, in a clear effort to bond with his son in law, he arrived early, so enabling him to sit down and watch the England game with me. And there the wheels came off quicker than a French training session.....


Too much has been lamented since Friday, so I will not dwell on a disasterous game. John Terry continues to demonstrate what a classless individual he really is, while Capello, without a hint of irony (not sure they have that in Italy), runs to the media to lambast Terry for err, running to the media.


As a result of the dour Cape Town fare, it was difficult for me to explain I needed to ignore the father in law for the rest of the weekend because Ghana v Australia "may be a humdinger of a game".... and thus I caught nothing but highlights of the weekend's games until I tuned into the second half of the Italians making us look good and Brazil looking like potential champions.... at last the weekend was beginning to turn around....


Monday saw results go as expected, if with a heavier goal-load from Portugal than thought possible.... makes my bleating about their negativity last week look as ill advised as questioning Monsieur Domenech in the middle of his half time team talk. Yes, about half of the goals were dubiously offside, but it was good to see the tournment open up from a goals perspective. Chile were entertaining, but give the impression they could be left to rue missed chances later in the tournament. Ditto the Spaniards. Should be a great game between the two later this week...

Which is a great lead into where we are today - it's final group game time, it's 2-games-at-a-time-tastic, endless drama, teams going hell for leather... here's the highlights from Group A:
  • Trying to watch two games at the same time is terrible! I pretty much missed almost all of the goals today as I flicked to the other game....
  • Great effort by Bafana Bafana, fully deserved their world cup victory over a France team that had their plane tickets home stuffed in their shorts.
  • Raymond Domenech refusing to shake hands with Parreira (the SA manager) due to comments the guy may have made MONTHS AGO - seriously, your team hates you, your country is up in arms and cheering on Bafana Bafana its so upset, and the football world is laughing at what a sorry excuse of a world cup outfit you are.... and yet you still maintain enough focus to carry a stupid grudge, and expunge yourself of any remaining sportsmanship left in your bones... impressive!!
  • I focused on the France pantomime, but another solid performance by Uruguay - still looking good for 1/4 finals as far as I am concerned.
  • Mr Blanco started the game for Mexico... but I missed him! The only sighting as I channel flicked was him on 60 mins blowing quite hard and being replaced by someone young enough to be his son

Group B:

THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD CUP IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALL ABOUT!! Nigeria - Sth Korea was a great game, goals, drama, changing permutations and possibly the worst miss in world cup history by Yakubu of all people - the ball spinning off his still recovering achilles to somehow miss the goal from about 3 yards out. I think ultimately, the better team progressed.

As for Greece, I don't know what to say. Twice I turned over to see "ooh, let's see how the Greeks handle having to score a goal"..... sadly, the patient was already flatlining... Georgie Samaras (has everyone at this world cup played for Man City at one time?) ploughing a lone furrow up front, no noticable changes in tactics throughout the game. Sorry, you've bored your way to one championship, but not this time....

Similar to Blanco, my channel flicking limited my Maradona sightings to a minimum... I caught a glimpse of him trying to take a throw in, and I think I heard he was fully participating in the warm ups before the game.... so sounds like he's keeping up his performances and I will be closely watching at the Mexico game...

Ok, that's me up to date... by a cruel twist of fate, it's crunch time for Capello's boys and my first day back at work tomorrow.... it could be a heavy dose of reality... I may not post again for days... for now, I will keep the faith and my fingers crossed....

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